The list of science fiction writers, futurists, thinkers, and visionaries who have inspired elements of the Orion's Arm universe through their own work , and continue to inspire and influence us, is great. Orion's Arm would not exist were it not for these trailblazers.

Here then is a partial list of those who have inspired this setting upon which we, the writers and artists, can build.

Note, the following list is still very much incomplete.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of the various persons listed here, whether as expressed in their works or in any other fashion, do not necessarily reflect those of the Orion's Arm Universe Project or setting.

In alphabetical order:

2000 AD (comic) - Home of Judge Dredd; demonstrates that even dystopias can be fun.

2300 AD (role playing game) - early interstellar colonization, use of brown dwarfs.

Isaac Asimov (scientist and SF writer) - for robotics, the Foundation series, and of course the original Encyclopedia Galactica

Dr William Sims Bainbridge - whose work on 'personality capture' - using preference or personality quiz information to generate a model of the answering person - something he believes to be a prequel to uploading...

Richard Baker (OA contributer and all-round expert) and David Dye - for Ad Astra which provides a guide to the earlier to middle stages of space colonization (Information and Interplanetary Ages), and is perhaps the only developed speculative ultra hard SF worldbuilding scenario on the web. Thanks to both Richard and David for graciously allowing us to incorporate pages from that project in OA

Richard Dawkins (Darwinist) - memes which enables us to arrive at further (post-Dawkinsian) developments and concepts like memetic engineering, which provide an explanation whereby some minds and factions are able to manipulate others

John Dollan (OA contributer and web author) - for the Planet Classification List and kindly allowing us to incorporate his planetology in the setting

K. Eric Drexler (futurist - nanotech) - Engines of Creation and other material - nanotechnology; perhaps the single most important and significant technology and insight in creating this scenario, and its innumerable ramifications

Freeman Dyson (Astronomer and Visionary) - for Dyson Spheres and Dyson Trees, and a vision of the universe transformed and optimised as a home for life

Greg Egan (SF writer) all works - various important themes, especially involving virtuals, and ultra hard SF in general

Paul Di Filippo (SF writer) - author of Ribofunk, and of the term and concept of splices

Gary William Flake, - author of The Computational Beauty of Nature - Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation. See the on-line glossary from the book. Brief and very technical but very pertinent to the early stages of ai (some will still apply to current era) Some good informational science material that helped fill out a number of EG entries

Martyn J Fogg - Author of Terraforming: Engineering Planetary Environments and several articles and papers about planetary environments and engineering

Robert Freitas (nanomedicine visionary) - for giving us a good idea what the future may be like

Hugo de Garis - (AI researcher) for many important concepts involving AI, as well as ideas such as Scale war and assorted neologisms. See also Technical Terms Coined - some great terms and concepts, some of which have been adopted here and included in the OA glossary and the Encyclopedia

Robert J. Hall (RPG author) - Science Skills for Hero - a very comprehensive listing that provided the inspiration and foundation for many professions listed in the setting

Aaron Hamilton (OA contributer) - author of the superb The Hamilton Encyclopaedia of Exopaleontology - Historical Atlas, which he kindly allowed us to include in our setting, thus providing the basis for a history of galactic races

Homer, and other great mythopoets - who were writing their own brand of "science fiction" more than two and a half millennia ago. And what are the archailects and baselines of OA but the scientific update of his gods and mortals?

Ray Kurzweil (AI researcher) - The Age of Spiritual Machines and other material deals with AI and presents a persuasive argument for the Hard AI hypothesis - KurzweilAI.net - encyclopedic coverage of topics relating to artificial intelligence, posthumanism, nanotech, and more. Some only applies to the early Information Age, but there is also material on nanotech and other neat things.

Marc Miller and co-workers - for the Traveller role playing game; with its vast setting and detailed galactography it provides a predecessor/ soft/medium SF prototype for OA. Also the Traveller Library has inspired a number of neat ideas for the Encyclopaedia Galactica

Larry Niven (SF author) - Father of the ringworld concept and lots of other cool ideas

Jeff Noon (SF/magical realism writer) - various works - Madverts (well it's a great name, but the meaning in OA is completely different), Dog Splices/Uplifts (again, completely different here)

Gerald K. O'Neill (space enthusiast) - author of The High Frontier for telling us that a planetary surface is not the best place to build an advanced civilization. His work has been the inspiration for the Orbital Habitats and space based civilization of our setting - Island One Society

David Pulver and Co.. - for GURPS Transhuman Space, an ultra hard SF role playing setting which features very important and realistic ideas on early Interplanetary Age spacecraft, biotech, bionano, microbots, etc.

Eric S. Raymond - SF Glossary a good and easy to read page that gives the original authorship and meaning of most common SF words. Use with Science Fiction Citations for the OED.

Rudy Rucker (SF writer) - author of The Hardware/Software/Wetware series, which introduces and features the "moldies", the inspiration for the erotoginii of this setting

Anders Sandberg (Transhumanist and OA contributer) - author of an astonishing and encyclopaedic transhumanist web site, as well as Big Ideas, Grand Vision with useful material on individual development of interstellar colonies (Interplanetary age and Interplanetary dark age); compiled Transhumanist Terminology from the Lextropicon Max More and others

Marshall T. Savage (visionary) - author of The Millennial Project: Colonizing the Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps - perhaps no other single written work can so inspire the concept of a space-faring civilization and colonizing the galaxy!

Vernor Vinge (SF writer and Mathematician) - author of A Fire Upon the Deep and The Coming Technological Singularity who gave us concepts such as the Singularity, and Singularity Levels (which he presents as "Zones of Thought" but are here reinterpreted as true Toposophic grades), the Known Net, and rule by AI. Without him, there would never have been an Orion's Arm worldbuilding project.

Jordan K. Weisman and others for the Battletech/Mechwarrior universe, a vast role playing / computer gaming setting that in part inspired the idea of neofeudalistic/aristocratic Great Houses

Martin Whiteside - author of The Science in Science Fiction - A Guide to the Physics Governing the Star Trek Series - Part astronomy and physics encyclopaedia, part Star Trek, and even if the latter elements are not very pertinent to Orion's Arm, this is still a great resource